Earlier this spring Benjamin Moore launched CENTURY, a new line of pre-mixed, small batch, ultra-premium paint in a “soft-touch matte” finish. The palette consists of 75 brand new colors, ranging from mid-tone to dark shades, intended to enrich the color collection of interior designers.

“We needed something for the architects and the designers—something more elevated and more studied,” says Benjamin Moore creative director Ellen O’Neill, who has been working on the collection for more than five years. “So we really went back to the hand of the artists.” It started with texture or, as O’Neill puts it, making “more of a covering than a coating.” She explains: “You can almost see a nap in it when you turn a certain way or see it in profile. It beckons you to touch.